Senate sets pair of major test votes on campaign finance

Published: Saturday, October 16, 1999

WASHINGTON {AP} The Senate set a pair of test votes on campaign finance legislation for early next week as a bipartisan coalition behind the effort to overhaul the current system showed signs of strain Friday.

In a letter to President Clinton, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, a GOP presidential hopeful, requested "immediate assistance" in discouraging Senate Democrats from pressing for a more comprehensive measure than is now on the floor.

"If offered, Republican senators who oppose our efforts to enact meaningful campaign finance reforms may support the amendment, ... then revert to their strident opposition," McCain wrote to the president. The result would be to kill "any prospect of meaningful reform this year."

The letter, written Thursday, was released Friday, as Democrats defied McCain's wishes.

As a result, the Senate will vote Tuesday on the broader measure which McCain and his legislative partner, Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., supported last year and then on the slimmed-down bill they are backing this year.

A 60-vote majority will be required to advance either proposal.

Democratic aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the decision to seek a vote on the broader measure is an attempt to place senators on record. If it falls short of 60, they said, the debate will resume on McCain and Feingold's current measure.

That bill would ban soft money from federal campaigns, large donations that political parties and some politicians seek from corporations, labor and individuals. It also would give nonunion members the right to stop unions from using their mandatory dues money for political activities.